Ressa freed after posting P100K bail
Credit to Author: CATHERINE A. MODESTO| Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2019 16:15:24 +0000
Panelo: ‘She’s enjoying it’
RAPPLER President and Chief Executive Officer Maria Ressa posted bail on Thursday with a Manila court after being held at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) headquarters overnight.
Ressa posted bail of P100,000, the amount set by the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46.
Presiding Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa was in Las Piñas City, according to her staff, so a judge from Branch 45 signed the bail on her behalf.
Ressa said this was the sixth time she had bailed herself out. “I will pay more bail than convicted criminals. I will pay more than Imelda Marcos,” she told reporters.
JJ Disini, Ressa’s legal counsel, said lawyers tried to post bail on Wednesday evening at the Pasay night court before it closed at 9 p.m., but the metropolitan judge refused to accept any application for bail, citing jurisdiction issues.
Disini, however, argued that under the Rules of Court, a metropolitan judge has the power to do so.
The NBI served the court order after court hours, a move which was viewed by Ressa as “ridiculous” and criticized as “harassment.”
In an interview, Ressa told reporters that if the government thought keeping her under custody for a night would “intimidate” her, it was mistaken.
The arrest warrant, which stemmed from a revived complaint by businessman Wilfredo Keng over what he dubbed as a “malicious” story written by one of Rappler’s researchers and posted on May 29, 2012, came from Manila RTC Branch 46, after the Department of Justice’s recommendation to indict Ressa. The department submitted the recommendation to file charges on February 6.
Ressa was arrested about 5 p.m. at the Rappler office in Pasig City for cyberlibel, a case which she described as “ridiculous,” an “abuse of power” and “weaponization of the law” because the violation she allegedly committed was nonexistent at the time.
Keng accused Ressa of violating the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. It did not become law until about four months after the story — which claimed that Keng owned the sport utility vehicle that the late chief justice Renato Corona used during his impeachment trial — was published.
The NBI previously dismissed Keng’s complaint in 2017 for lack of basis but the bureau revived it a week later.
Ressa questioned the timing of the arrest, that she was not sent her own copy of the charge sheet, and that the case had been thrown out by the NBI itself. “These legal acrobatics show how far the government will go to silence journalists, including the pettiness of forcing me to spend the night in jail,” she said.
‘Not an assault on free press’
Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo, over radio station dzMM, said Ressa seemed to be basking in the spectacle. “I think she’s enjoying it.”
He said the arrest of Ressa had nothing to do with the exercise of freedom of expression.
In a statement released late Wednesday, Panelo said freedom of expression was “absolutely” unrelated with her “probable violation” of the country’s laws.
Panelo said Ressa should welcome the opportunity to defend herself before a court of law.
In January 15 last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked Rappler’s certificate of incorporation for allegedly violating the Philippine Constitution and the statutory foreign equity ban in mass media. A month later, Pia Rañada, the Malacañang reporter of Rappler, was barred from entering the Palace.
Panelo said the manner of Ressa’s arrest was being blown out of proportion.
“They are making a fuss about anything they perceive to be wrong. You know a warrant of arrest can be issued on a weekday. The only prohibition is you issue it on a weekend and that will not give the respondent the opportunity to file a motion for or to file bail,” he said.
‘Singled out’
The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility described the arrest of Ressa as an attack on the freedom of expression, and the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines said it would stand against any move that would undermine the freedom of the press.
Michael Golden of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers urged President Duterte to stop the persecution of Rappler.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on authorities to drop all charges against Ressa. “The arrest of Maria Ressa is an outrage,” said CPJ Board Chairman Kathleen Carroll in a statement on Wednesday.
Jim Roberts of the Paris-based Global Editors Network was also up in arms against the arrest. Ressa serves as network board member.
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour said the Duterte administration was desperate in arresting Ressa.
“You know a government is desperate when they arrest a journalist,” she said in a tweet.
The University of Santo Tomas Journalism Society, in a statement, condemned the arrest and said Ressa was being “singled out for her news organization’s critical coverage of the Duterte administration.”
Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo also said Ressa was “singled out” and harassed.
The Senate minority bloc, composed of opposition Senators Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino 4th, Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan, Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes 4th, said Ressa’s arrest was a government ploy to silence its critics, including journalists.
The Commission on Human Rights urged the government to ensure constitutional guarantees, including due process and equal protection of laws, even to journalists.
WITH GLEE JALEA, ARIC JOHN SY CUA, BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO AND RALPH U. VILLANUEVA
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